Thursday, June 27, 2013

We're liking Longmont. In the state of Southern Colorado.

June:

Most days we go out exploring our new community looking for
new places to go walking, interesting restaurants and such.

There are dozens of city and Bolder
County parks within a fifteen
minute drive. A neighbor suggested we try Pella Crossing. It's a county park
about ten minutes away. There is a 2+- mile loop that goes around two fishing
lakes. The path around the lake is well
compacted stone so it works well with Carols scooter. When no one is close
enough to disturb, I let Gopher off her leash. She really enjoys swimming and
fetching a stick. . There must be some retriever somewhere in her lineage.
Pella Crossing has become our favorite walking place.

Cooling off in the lake.

Every other Tuesday night during the summer, the city sponsors a
free outdoor concert in Roosevelt Park.
Last Tuesday the band played Celtic Rock. In either 2003 or 2004 we spent most
of the summer touring the Canadian Maritime Provinces. Cape
Breton in Nova
Scotia was among out favorite places because of the absolutely
infectious Celtic music. Tuesdays concert brought back those memories.

This past Tuesday we went to another concert. The band played "contemporary noise" We stayed for a little while, bought some caramel popcorn and went for a quiet drive.

The other day the temperature was a record breaking
99*.Our cheapy indoor/outdoor
thermometer registered 104*. We took our regular after-lunch walk and didn't
find it especially uncomfortable. The relative humidity was only 12%. In South
FL, a 99* day would be matched with a similar humidity. Five
minutes after stepping outside my shirt would be soaked through.Not so around here. 99* is hot, no denying
that. Sort of like standing in front of a hairdryer hot vs being in a sauna
hot.

NOCO (North Colorado) .I don't know much about CO politics and could
care less. However, there has been some really entertaining reading recently
about a movement to split CO into two states.Some of the Letters-to-the-Editor belong with the Funny Pages. Here it is as I understand the issue. For
decades the Republicans (R's) had total control of CO including the legislature, governorship and
virtually all elected statewide offices. The R's were happy campers.As time passed, the population of the state
became increasingly concentrated along the Front Range;
that being the metropolitan area between Denver
and Fort Collins. Today some 90% of
the population of CO lives in the Front Range.

The voters in the Front Range are
primarily Democrats(D's) and in some communities like Bolder, very, very
liberal. Liberal to the point of making Berkley,
CA look like a hotbed of right wing
extremism.

At any rate. When you have a system of government which is
based on the vote of the majority it's clear that the Front Range
with some 90%of the population will
decide the winner of most statewide races. As a result, the legislature and governors
office are in solid control of the D's. Not so good for the R's. Recently, the
legislature passed a law requiring universal background checks for all firearm
transactions. The NRA and the R's went ballistic.On top of this perceived insult to the R's,
the D's passed another law aimed at weaning the U.S.
off foreign oil. A number of years ago, CO passed a law that said all electric
utility companies selling power in CO must get, as I recall, 10% of their energy from renewable resources
like wind, solar, etc. Most people might think this to be a reasonable idea. This
year the legislature upped the number to 15%. The R's went insane. Rural CO,
home of most of the R's in the state, is real big in oil and natural gas
production and anything that threatens the R's Colorado energy policy of pump-more-oil
is heresy.

The R's screamed that it's not fair that the majority D's
ignored them in the legislature and pursued a purely D agenda.Both of these new laws must be repealed now
they demanded.One interviewer asked one
of the prominent R's how the total and absolute control of the R's of the
dysfunctional U.S. House differed from the total and absolute control of the
D's in the CO legislature. In both
cases, the minority party is totally shut out of the legislative process. Mostly he tap-danced around that question.

So. The R solution is to form their own state. The counties
joining in this secession are the oil and agricultural areas primarily in northeast CO under strong R
control. The city of Longmont
is in ultra-liberal Bolder County
so we will most certainly remain in South CO.

In the morning, as soon as I'm finished with the funnies, I
read the Letters-to-the-Editor and articles related to this issue. Cheap
entertainment.:-)

Seven years ago, on June 13, 2006
while camping near Rock Springs, WY
awaiting the start of the Lazy Daze 50th Anniversary celebration in Cheyenne,
Carol had the heart attack which precipitated her life changing stroke. She recently had a through checkup
by her cardiologist. All is well in that respect.

We had a nice Fathers Day. There was a girls U-18 fast-pitch
softball tournament at the nearby park today. Players came from CO, NM and NE. We took our
daily walks over to watch some of the games.Alex played softball, as well as soccer,in high school and college.

Next week, Alex and Finn and Teagan (T) are coming to visit
for a week. We're looking forward to having all the grandchildren collected in
one place.

4 comments:

You've got some great walking places in your area. Have you been up to Loveland to walk around the Benson Sculpture Garden? Great little park and some lovely sculptures.http://www.sculptureinthepark.org/

Glad to see you settled in a getting used to that heat!! Supposed to be getting some of that here in Eugene this weekend and next week. They are tearing up the edge of the street right in front of our house and driveway, working on a new sidewalk project. You would not be able to get in and out very well in your Lazy Daze.

Happy to hear that Carol is doing well. Gopher looks good in the water, and is having fun! You enjoy your summer, and it's good to see your blog post. Thanks, Ed.